


From Heidelberg With Love

by LadyKes



Series: Interagency Cooperation [4]
Category: Lewis (TV), NCIS
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-23
Updated: 2014-10-23
Packaged: 2018-02-22 06:03:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2497241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyKes/pseuds/LadyKes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Abby and James go on a little vacation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	From Heidelberg With Love

**Author's Note:**

> This was written before Series 8 of Lewis aired, so there are no spoilers but it's also now an AU. It's also a little love letter to Heidelberg, which is one of my favorite cities.

When one half of a friendship lived in the US and the other half lived in England, meeting in the middle for a joint vacation didn’t really work. Abby supposed they could have met in the Azores, but she wasn’t a big fan of the sun and James was almost as pale as she was, especially now that he was a full-time student again. He’d left the police after a truly Jamesish amount of soul-searching, and she meant that in all its connotations. She knew practicing priests who took their faith and its influence on decision-making less seriously. Now he was getting a PhD in History and was dissertating on early Medieval indigenous faith traditions, which meant he spent a lot of time with books that required white cotton gloves and gave Abby headaches. They gave him headaches too, but he loved it. He was happy again, which he hadn’t really been for awhile. He’d decided a few months ago that he wanted to visit the Heidelberg University library to get headaches from their books, so they decided to meet in Heidelberg. He could spend his days with books and she could explore the Neckar Valley, which was beautiful in the summer. 

She tried to time their visit around the castle illuminations and was glad that James happened to have a break in his classes that fit with one. It was their last night in Heidelberg, the last night before they had to go back to their respective realities on their respective sides of the ocean, and she was going to enjoy the whole oohing and aahing tourist experience. They’d gone down to the riverbank early to get a good spot, but it had gotten really crowded really fast. She’d had to scootch in a little closer to James to make room for someone else and she’d been startled when James had pulled her in further to rest against him. She’d always been touchy and he never really had been, but she didn’t mind. She liked James, after all, and she didn’t mind being close to him. He was remarkably comfortable for someone who had so little extra padding.

When the last rays of the fireworks had faded and the boats on the river were starting to go back to their moorings, he helped her up but then didn’t let go of her hand. People were looking at them sweetly, like they were just another young couple enjoying the warm summer night and she wasn’t even remotely sure why he was doing this.

“James?” she said tentatively.

“Will you come back to my room?” he blurted, nearly all in one word, and she took a second to stare at him like he’d grown a second head. He was serious, or at least she couldn’t imagine that he’d be blushing that much if he wasn’t. And given the blushing, he probably didn’t mean to just be somnolent.

“Bad idea, James,” she said as gently as she could. “I’m not really sure who or what you want right now, but I’m pretty sure it’s not actually me. And I don’t sleep with people who are trying to substitute me for someone else.”

He sighed and slumped and loosened his hold on her hand, so she could have dropped it, but she didn’t. She didn’t want to reject him completely, even though she was rejecting his offer. There was a difference, and it took a lot more than an ill-advised suggestion to make her give up on a friend like James.

“How did you know?” he asked quietly.

“We weren’t all seminary students,” she pointed out teasingly. “I’ve been around the figurative block. And I have a degree in psychology, which you know because you’ve been picking my brain about the psychology and sociology of faith for the last six months.” 

He smiled a little bit at that assessment and she was glad to see it. “That’s fair. Will you come and sleep with me anyway?”

She almost reacted badly since she’d just explained perfectly clearly that she wouldn’t and she didn’t appreciate her “no” being ignored, but she glanced at him and realized he didn’t mean it euphemistically. That was fortunate for him, because it meant she wouldn’t be reminding him of the very serious societal issues with consent that all law enforcement, current or former, could not help but be aware of. Her consent lecture was well-honed and very pointy.

“Sleep together,” she said, holding her palms flat against each other like an icon on the wall of the Heiliggeistkirche, “not sleep together.” She intertwined her fingers like a child praying.

He frowned for a moment until he realized the meaning of her hand gestures. Then he looked a little naughty. It was a good look on him. He clasped his hands around each other like she’d always been taught to hold hers in her lap in deportment class.

“Perhaps sleep together?” he suggested, and she laughed delightedly. He’d taken her analogy and extended the meaning perfectly, which she loved. She was going to adopt that new permutation at the earliest possible opportunity.

She considered his suggestion as they walked along the quaint streets of the Altstadt and eventually came to a decision. It was probably just in time, too, judging by the increasing amount of fidgeting he was doing. If she was going to go in for mind-reading, he was sure she was going to say no, but he wasn’t sure why she was taking so long to do it.

“Yes, on one condition,” she said, and he looked wary, which made her roll her eyes. She understood a cop’s suspicion, even a former cop, but honestly, what did he think she was going to ask?

“You have to explain to me, rationally and intelligently, why you want to take a slightly flirty but overall completely platonic relationship and add morning breath, not to mention morning wood.”

He gave her question the seriousness it deserved and finally replied when they were almost to their Gasthaus. 

“Comfort,” he stated plainly. “Touch. I don’t have many friends close enough to touch casually. I miss it.”

“What about Robbie?” she asked, although she was pretty sure she knew the answer. They were close for a former “guv’nor” and “bagman”, but as far as she knew they weren’t that close.

“Middle-aged ex-copper from oop north?” he said skeptically.

“That’s fair,” she agreed, because that was definitely the answer she expected. “You need someone, James. Everyone does. You can’t survive without touch. There are studies. I can give you references.”

“Robbie said that once. But I can’t exactly wear a free hugs shirt,” he pointed out, and she had a sudden mental image of exactly that.

“I’d pay to see you do it,” she giggled, and he glared, but it wasn’t much of a glare. She sobered and considered his honest and self-aware evaluation. He needed this, he was willing to be vulnerable and admit it, and to be honest, she could use it too. She was a hugger, as Tony was fond of warning people, and she always slept better with someone in the bed with her.

“In that case, I have just one more question,” she said, pausing dramatically. “Do you snore?”

“No one has complained yet,” he said cagily.

“Not an answer, James Hathaway. Oh well. I’ll just kick you if you do,” she decided as they walked up the stairs to their conveniently adjacent rooms.

“If there is one thing in the universe I’m sure of, and sometimes I think there is, it’s that,” he said solemnly.

**Author's Note:**

> The castle illuminations in Heidelberg are a real thing and are highly recommended.


End file.
